Few things feel more satisfying than finishing a good meal. But this positive feeling can sour if you are left with bits of food stuck between your teeth. It may feel hard to resist trying to free the trapped food with your tongue, and this can distract you from other activities on your agenda.
But trapped food between your teeth is more than just annoying. Lingering food particles in your mouth can also pose a threat to your dental health. So you should not ignore this oral phenomenon if you want to protect your smile. Read on to learn more about what food stuck in your smile means for your oral health.
Does Trapped Food Hurt My Oral Health?
Most people associate food stuck in the teeth with a pesky foreign presence within the mouth. But if food stays trapped between the teeth, your mouth might start to feel sore as well. Trapped food can apply pressure on the tooth which can lead to this chronic ache.
You should not try to tolerate or ignore this sensation. The pressure may indicate that the teeth are starting to shift out of their straight alignment. To preserve the look and feel of your smile, you should address this issue promptly.
Lingering food in your smile will also start to decay after a while. This encourages natural oral bacteria to produce plaque. And as food particles and plaque form, they will start to eat away at your dental structure.
Then you will have a high risk of forming cavities and many other dental dangers. Prevent dental emergencies by getting rid of trapped food between teeth as soon as you can.
How Do I Safely Remove Food from Between Teeth?
You can take action to remove food from your teeth on your own, though you should stick to recommended methods of doing so. You may feel tempted to dig the food out with fingernails, but this is not a polite act to do in public. Also, it is unsanitary to put germy fingers in your mouth and then transfer oral bacteria to your hands.
Instead, dentists suggest using dental floss or a toothbrush to free the food stuck between the teeth. Your oral hygiene regimen is designed to scrub away residues from your smile in a safe and effective way. Floss in particular targets the space between the teeth so that you can eradicate these harmful particles without hurting the rest of your smile.
Can I Prevent Food Trapped in My Smile?
A small seed or bit of pork might stick in anyone’s smile every now and then. But if you often have trouble with food in the spaces between your teeth, you might have what dentists call a food trap.
These refer to changes in the spacing between teeth, whether due to issues with the gums or alignment concerns in the teeth, where food will easily get stuck. You should talk to your dentist if you notice this problem so that they can offer treatment to stop this from happening going forward.